1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manufacturing method to perform a treatment on a substrate. Particularly, the present invention relates to a manufacturing method of a display device. The present invention also relates to an operation method of a treatment apparatus, and a display device formed by the operation method. Further, the present invention relates to recycling a container for transferring a substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional substrate transfer system is made mainly for the purpose of transferring a glass substrate or the like, not for the purpose of transferring a TFT substrate (See References 1 and 2). Nowadays, there is in general used a method by which a substrate is placed in a storage container made of styrofoam that has a good shock absorbing property and is cheap, or a container made of plastic (that is not electrostatic-protected) that is easy to recycle, or a method by which a substrate is wrapped with paper and the substrate is further packed with a packaging material (a shock absorbing material such as a cardboard).
However, according to the above described methods, a glass substrate having a uniform size, a glass coated with a film can be transferred, but a TFT substrate that has a weakness for scratches or the like cannot be transferred. When two or more kinds of substrates that are different in size are transferred, it is necessary to prepare containers, respectively, corresponding to the sizes thereof.
The glass substrate that has been stored in a container and transferred and is transferred into a container usable for an environment of a clean room (hereinafter, referred to as a clean room) with a human hand or transfer equipment in a preparation room and then, transferred into a clean room through an air shower chamber. When the conveying container can be usable for the clean room (for example, an encapsulated type container made of plastic or the like), the container is exposed to a cleaning treatment, and then, the conveying container is transferred into the clean room.
The substrate transferred into the clean room is transferred into a conveying container in the clean room with a human hand or transfer equipment, and then, from the conveying container in the clean room into a treatment apparatus. In some cases where the conveying container usable for the clean room is used, a substrate is transferred directly in a cassette box for the treatment apparatus from the conveying container.
However, according to the above described methods, there is a necessity of preparing different containers corresponding to each of the steps. Thus, a cost becomes higher and a throughput is lowered because a transferring step is required, which is a problem. Electrostatic generated in transferring, contamination of a substrate due to particles, electrostatic discharge damage of a TFT substrate device, breakage of a substrate due to a worker's mistake in transferring, etc. are also problems (Reference 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10-264970 and Reference 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-225949).